The life of Laureano Gomez (1889-1965), Colombia's combative Conservative politician and reviled public figure, serves as the backdrop for this modern history of one of the hemisphere's least understood nations. Tracing the complex process of development in Colombia, James Henderson explores the civil violence that defined the Gomez era even as the country experienced economic growth unparalleled in the rest of the Americas. Gomez was a consummate debater, a spellbinding orator, and an influential newspaper editor. Early in his career he was a thorn in the side of Liberals and Conservatives alike, while in later years he led the Conservative opposition in Congress. He made and unmade presidents, served as president himself, and figured prominently in Colombia's transition to modernity. Henderson gives us the best and worst of Gomez and his adversaries during this era, a time of alternating political peace and progress, punctuated by spells of extremist invective and bloody violence. Thus he shows that much of recent Colombian history is rooted in developments from the Gomez years. Few Colombians can speak calmly of Gomez, and many blame him for the violence that plagued the country from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s. Henderson's objective and thorough discussion exposes the myths and assumptions surrounding Gomez and offers especially effective analysis of his writings, speeches, congressional debates, and editorials (as well as his rejoinders, one-liners, and put-downs, classics in the lexicon of Colombian history). Henderson also chronicles the titanic political rivalry between Gomez and Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo, an arch-Liberal, showing how the two ultimately led Colombia into the fratricidal civil war known as La Violencia.